Tag: UFC 123

With Bellator on hiatus, Friday mornings have gotten a little lonely around here. So I decided to reach out to Doug "ReX13" Richardson and see if he felt like reviving a classic feature on CagePotato, and engaging in some spirited debate on a few UFC 123-related topics that we didn’t get to cover in last week’s podcast. Will this be the beginning of a new era, or the raping of an old legacy? Read on and decide for yourself. And don’t forget to come back tomorrow night for our liveblog of Rampage vs. Machida!

Between Rampage, Machida, Hughes, and Penn, who would most deserve a title shot after a win on Saturday?

BG: Matt Hughes by a country mile. Hughes has already built up three-straight wins in his division — which sets him apart from the other headliners on the card who are all coming off of losses — and a win in his rubber match against Penn might generate interest in the revival of another big-money rivalry from the past: Hughes vs. GSP. (Yes, Georges would need to get past Josh Koscheck at UFC 124, but who are we kidding here?)

No matter who holds the 170-pound strap at the end of next month, it’s clear that the UFC’s welterweight division is short on exciting title challengers, while the light-heavyweight division almost has too many of them. Once the Mauricio Rua vs. Rashad Evans title scrap finally goes down, the winner of Jon Jones vs. Ryan Bader could legitimately be slotted in for a shot ahead of Jackson or Machida. Meanwhile, a Hall of Famer like Matt Hughes making another unlikely title run would be a lot more compelling than Jon Fitch or Jake Shields getting their dutiful turns at bat. In fact, Fitch and Shields should have to fight each other to establish the UFC’s Alpha Blanket before either of them get a whiff of championship gold.

RX: Wow, really? Country Breakfast was the first guy I eliminated. His last win over a guy under thirty years old was five years ago, and he hasn‘t shown any interest in actually fighting top 5 fighters at 170. Both Hughes and Penn are looking to win this fight so internet assholes like ourselves don’t start saying they’re washed-up bums.

Both fighters lost their fights on Saturday night in Oberhausen, Germany, bringing their losing streaks to three apiece and prompting the UFC to release them.

Sabotta dropped unanimous decisions to Paul Taylor and TUF 9 winner James Wilks before losing in the same manner to TUF 7 winner, Amir Sadollah in his last bout in the Octagon.

Reljic’s UFC career was also spoiled by a trio of TUF vets including season 7 runner-up CB Dollaway and season 3 winner Kendall Grove. The loss to the latter prompted the Croation fighter to move back up to light heavyweight for his last fight with season 8 semi-finalist Krzysztof Soszynski, which he lost by unanimous decision on Saturday.

The 26-year-old won Fight of the Night honors in 2008 in his UFC debut in which he defeated Wilson Gouveia by TKO at UFC 84.

MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani caught up with Dana White following today’s UFC 123 pre-fight press conference in Auburn Hills, Michigan and the UFC president shared his thoughts on a number of topics, including whether or not he thinks Quinton Jackson is motivated for his fight with Lyoto Machida, why he had a change of heart about letting Karo Parisyan fight for his organization again, what will happen to BJ Penn if he loses his third straight fight and Roy Nelson’s contract status.

UFC 123 may not feature any title fights, but it does feature four hungry ex-champions. Headliner Rampage Jackson says he’s seen it all in his long career, and he’s not expecting any surprises from Lyoto Machida. Tiki Ghosn chimes in, predictably: "It’s Karate. Karate we found out sucked years ago. I think everybody got mesmerized with [Machida's] movement. Nobody cuts him off, nobody tries to cut him off." We hear more about Rampage’s decision to move his camp closer to home in Orange County, but no real explanation for the specific presence of Lance Gibson. Coincidentally, Machida has been preparing not too far away in San Diego, at Team Nogueria Gym. He says this fight is all about who imposes their gameplan. As opposed to other fights, where gameplans don’t really matter.

After the jump: ’Countdown’ continues, with a nice history of the rivalry between Matt Hughes and BJ Penn — from Matt’s "big man on campus" prime, to the loss that threw him into a Sin City tailspin, to his rematch redemption. Hughes has now eaten up three-consecutive Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts, and is looking to make Penn #4. Meanwhile, Penn is in Honolulu, with a head full of smoking needles, trying to clear his head after two upset losses to Frankie Edgar. To see the segment on Sotiropoulos vs. Lauzon, head to UFC.com.

We can forgive Phil Davis a moment of hubris. At 7-0, dude hasn’t encountered a ton of adversity so far in his fighting career, so when somebody asks him what surprised him the most about transitioning from amateur wrestling to MMA it’s actually sort of cute that his response is essentially: “Man, beating people up? That shit hurts.”

"When you’re at home watching the UFC and you see a guy get elbowed in the face, you think, Oooh, that poor guy, he just got elbowed in the face," Davis says. "But I’m here to tell you, that hurts your elbow. You don’t think it would, but it hurts your elbow. When you calm down, stop sweating, get your shower and change, you will think, Man, my elbow really hurts. I’m telling you. It’s surprising."

This Saturday in Detroit, two former light-heavyweight champions — both coming off of losses — will battle to retain their top-contender status. To better predict the outcome of Rampage vs. Machida, we look to the stats, which never, ever fail us. Check ‘em out below, and don’t forget to make your picks in this week’s MMA Fightpicker pools!

# OF SUCCESSFUL TITLE DEFENSES AS CHAMPION Jackson: 1 Machida: 1 Advantage: even

(Sotiropoulos using his knee and ankle supports to allow Joe Stevenson to get a better grip on his leg.)

A popular topic of debate surrounding next weekend’s UFC 123 event in Auburn Hills, Michigan has focused on the legality of the in-Octagon apparel worn by one of the card’s participants.

Fans and pundits alike seem split about whether or not the compression short-ankle and knee support combination worn by lightweight George Sotiropoulos are legal under the Unified Rules of mixed martial arts.

Even G-Sot’s opponent, Joe Lauzon has labeled the Australian fighter a cheater because of his in-Octagon apparel.

"I don’t see how you can wear your regular fight shorts, compression shorts under that that go to your knee, then wear knee pads on both sides that go halfway down your leg, then ankle supports that go halfway up your leg and down to your toes," Lauzon explained to Ariel Helwani during a recent episode of MMAFighting’s The MMA Hour. "I don’t know what the deal is with the commission, if he’ll be allowed to wear those or not, but we’re prepared for him either way. I don’t really understand how he gets away with them. We’re definitely going to look into it a little bit."

(G-Sot chose to forgo wearing his knee braces at UFC 116 in July after opponent Kurt Pellegrino called him a cheater for wearing them.)

Lauzon may be wasting his time.

According to reputable officials we conferred with from the Nevada State Athletic Commission and New Jersey State Athletic Control Board – two of the main regulatory bodies responsible for helping develop the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts as we know them today – Sotiropoulos’s choice of legwear is perfectly legal under their jurisdictions, but ultimately, the final call goes to the commission overseeing each event.